An expert in the field of religion, a candidate of philosophical sciences and ex-chairman of the State Committee of Ukraine for Nationalities and Religions, Yuriy Evgenyevich Reshetnikov, said that an attempt to discredit and ban the Ukrainian Orthodox Church does not contribute to the formation of Ukraine as a European state. The religious scholar stated this during a press conference held in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra on December 15.

Reshetnikov stressed that the UOC is included in the scale of the value system, which is formed during the war to strive for victory and to renew the state and become European, therefore its oppression cannot be beneficial to the country.

“A purposeful, rather manipulative information campaign is being conducted against the faithful of the UOC, which should present the Church as someone’s branch or something else. <…> In this campaign, as a rule, the UOC is not called by the name with which it is registered in state institutions, but something else sounds: “Moscow Patriarchate”, “Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine”, the expert added.

“This manipulative campaign, for which no one is responsible, does not contribute to the unity of Ukrainian society, contradicts the national interests of Ukraine and falls under the article of the Constitution “Inciting interreligious hatred,” he said.